Welsh and Scottish Gaelic in UK Passports

The UK Passport Service is including Welsh and Scottish Gaelic in passports
for the first time when the new biometric passports are introduced from autumn
this year. This means that the languages will appear in the newly designed
passport alongside other EU member state languages. They will not however
appear on the personal details page.

Although The Welsh Language Act 1993 does not require passports to contain
this information and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Bill is still going
through the Scottish Parliament, UKPS have decided that the two languages
should be included with other design changes. These changes have been made
without any increase in the cost of the passport and they have been welcomed
by both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. The new passports will
include an embedded chip containing facial biometric information that can be
scanned electronically. This will meet the International Civil Aviation
Organisation standards which are aimed at reducing misuse by organised crime
and the threat of international terrorism.

For further information on:

- The History of the British Passport, click on ´History´
- The Welsh Language Scheme, click on ´Publications´
- Biometric passports, click on ´The UKPS biometrics enrolment trial´

The decision to include Welsh and Scottish Gaelic within the new
biometric passport was taken by the UKPS as we appreciate the importance of
these languages within the UK. UKPS incorporated them in all the areas
which were possible without contravening the international and EU standards.
The inclusion of both languages will be kept under review for future designs.

The layout and format of the British Passport will remain the same as the
current design. Welsh and Scottish Gaelic are going to appear on page 1 of
the passport underneath the English wording of 'European Union', 'United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' and 'Passport'. They are to
have greater prominence than the 20-EU member state languages that also appear
on this page. These translations are to appear in all British passports.